For day one of our South Africans in Cannes Diary, Machine_ Group ECD and Cannes Lions Audio & Radio juror Jabulani Sigege gives us more than a single day and we’re not complaining. He takes us through his first few days in Cannes, from arriving on the Croisette and settling into jury life to the responsibility of helping award the world’s best work.
Castle Lager’s new campaign is a tribute to the supporters who stood by Bafana Bafana through three decades of triumph, heartbreak and hope. Created by Bananas and Retroviral and directed by Paul Ward from Giant Films, the recreation is so authentic that many viewers have mistaken it for archive footage. Here's how the team brought three decades of Bafana Bafana fandom back to life.
More than 200 people gathered for the first-ever South African Creative Showcase where 14 agencies and their clients presented the work they hope will make South Africa proud at Cannes Lions 2026. It was a rare and wonderful sight: competitors and clients all in one room, cheering each other's work on. A rare chance for the industry to come together and get behind Team South Africa.
Being invited to judge at Cannes Lions is one of the highest honours in our industry. This year, 31 South Africans help shape the festival's most important conversations, serving on both shortlisting and awarding juries across categories ranging from Titanium and Glass to Film to Media, Design, PR and a Jury President in-between. Meet the marketers, strategists, filmmakers, designers and creative leaders representing South Africa on the global stage. Thank you legends for making us proud.
Last week, South Africa’s Cannes Lions jurors made a little history. For the first time, current jurors came together with former jurors and Jury Presidents for Jury Duty, a new IDIDTHAT.co and Nedbank initiative designed to share knowledge and hard-earned lessons before they step into the world’s most influential judging rooms.
Copywriter Devaksha Vallabhjee and art director Danike de Jager have spent almost a decade moving through the industry side by side, from Ogilvy to AndPeople, King James (now Accenture), Saatchi & Saatchi, Duke and now FCB. We caught up with the long-time creative partners to talk about how ideas get made, what they're looking for in director treatments, the South African work they wish they'd done, and why protecting a great idea is often the hardest part of the job.
LAST TICKETS AVAILABLE. On 4 June, the ACA and IDIDTHAT.co team up, with the backing of the Creative Circle, to host a special South African Creativity Showcase - a celebration of the work our industry is taking onto the global stage.
South Africa’s 2026 Cannes Predictions were revealed at IDIDTHAT’s industry dinner in Joburg on the 19th of May. Over 220 people from agencies, production companies, and brands packed out the restaurant, kicking off South Africa’s official Road to Cannes in exactly the right way: an industry showing up for each other, like only we can.
We all know that feeling. A piece of work drops and your stomach sinks a little because… damn, you wish you’d did that. The idea, the craft, whatever it is, it gets under your skin in the best possible way. So instead of pretending creatives don’t get wildly jealous of good work, we decided to celebrate it. We asked some of South Africa’s top talent to look at the work released between September and December 2025 and pick the pieces they genuinely wish they’d done themselves.
Under an absurd apartheid-era law, that keeps rapists anonymous and silences rape victims, women who publicly name their rapists can be prosecuted before a case has even gone to trial. We had to read that twice. We take a look at the new campaign called ‘NXME HIM’, whose sole objective is to get the Minister of Justice, Mmamoloko Kubayi’s, attention and force this long-ignored law into the spotlight.
We caught up with, Chantelle Dos Santos, the new Creative Director at Bananas to chat about choosing directors, the marketer relationships that elevate the work, the campaign she wishes she’d made, and why overthinking can quietly kill a great idea.
South Africa picked up a handful of shortlist recognitions at this year’s D&AD Awards, with a Wood Pencil awarded to Accenture Song for Allan Gray’s ‘A Seat at The Table’. Love this work, go team! And while it wasn’t the country’s biggest year at D&AD, getting shortlisted here still means the work stood out among some of the best creative entries in the world.
Last night, at a packed Cannes Predictions Dinner hosted by IDIDTHAT in Johannesburg, South Africa’s 2026 Cannes Contenders were revealed live to the industry. And now you can view that work right here.
South Africa came out punching at The One Show Awards 2026, with local agencies, production companies, creatives, marketers, and brands picking up Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Merit recognition across a wide spread of categories. Go team SA! Congratulations to all the South African Pencil and Merit winners. Here’s the work that brought it home.
For 29 years, the Young Director Award has championed emerging directing talent from around the world. But this year, YDA is turning its attention toward a region overflowing with creative energy, cinematic innovation, and stories that continue to shape global culture. Or, in the immortal words of Shakira circa FIFA World Cup 2010, ‘This time for Africa.’
There’s something powerful about women opening doors for other women, especially in an industry where access still shapes who gets seen, heard, and celebrated. This year, Open Chair once again secured passes through the Cannes Lions ERA Programme, sending 14 South African women to Cannes. The Croisette won’t know what hit it.
On Tuesday 19 May, the IDIDTHAT Cannes Predictions Dinner returns, bigger than before, bringing together agencies, marketers, and production partners for the live reveal of South Africa’s Cannes Lions contenders for 2026, as predicted by our judges. Make sure you secure a table for your team.
Every month, South Africa’s top creative and production talent help us crown the best in local craft. Now, after a full year of judging, the numbers are in and the official IDIDTHAT Craft Awards Rankings for 2025 are here. From directors and DOPs to editors, sound studios and VFX artists, this is the leaderboard of the teams consistently producing the industry’s most awarded and admired work. Now you know who to work with next!
Top South African editor Xander Vander has launched GOOD EDIT, a boutique offline editing house built around a simple idea: Let's focus on the edit.
For years now, IDIDTHAT has brought together a select group of the industry’s sharpest minds to review the South African work entered into Cannes Lions and to call, ahead of the world, what they believe will rise on the global stage. Here's who's doing South Africa's predicting this year.